Dulux Trade announces ColourFutures™ 2019

Dulux Trade, the UK’s leading paint brand, has revealed its coveted ColourFutures™ colour palettes for 2019.

Now in its 16th year, the Dulux Trade ColourFutures™ 2019 palette is selected to help professionals make colour and design choices for a wide variety of buildings, from commercial to healthcare and education to residential.

Dulux assembled a global panel of top design professionals to research trends, insights and consumer behaviours to decide on its colour of the year – a warm amber tone called Spiced Honey – and four complimentary palettes that capture the theme of ‘let the light in’.

The global expert panel, which this year included Jim Biddulph, designer and materials expert as its UK representative, married art with science to decide on the annual colour. The colour is versatile and contemporary, and complements a wide variety of interior styles with its optimistic range of palettes.

Jim Biddulph says: “The panel discussed all manner of topics from the year gone, ranging from the social, political and cultural. Even with a range of unique perspectives from around the globe, the panel recognised the valuable role that designers play, and are increasingly playing, in bringing about positive change and that ColourFutures™ 2019 should be a valuable part of their tool kit in doing so. The individual themes reflect this, with a set of balanced palettes that offer the headspace to carry out four of the most integral ways of being in 2019; thinking, dreaming, loving and acting.”

2018 was an unsettling and unpredictable time explained Heleen van Gent, Head of the Global Aesthetic Centre, who chairs the ColourFutures™ panel annually.

“We were overwhelmed by the deluge of news, choices and demands upon our time, causing us to close up and retreat into spaces where we feel safe and cocooned. We pressed pause and took time to regroup. As we move forward into 2019, we find this pause has given people time to re-energise and deal with the sense of unpredictability with positive action, optimism and purpose. If the unpredictability of last year forced people to retreat and regroup, 2019 is the time for their awakening. We are ready to ‘Let in the Light’.”

Spiced Honey is the shade at the centre of ColourFutures™ 2019 and perfectly captures this theme. It can be both calming and nourishing or stimulating and energising, depending on the palettes and light surrounding it. The contemporary hue is versatile and lends itself to a broad spectrum of life and interior styles – perfect for reflecting the awakening within society.

Marianne Shillingford, Creative Director for the Dulux brand in the UK, says:

“There’s a desire to reach out, engage with others, to make things better and ‘be the change’. That change can be anything from marching for women’s rights to small acts of neighbourly kindness. People are ready to seize the moment.

“Now is the time to think, to dream, to love and to act.”

The Global Aesthetic Centre, which has been responsible for the ColourFutures™ trend analysis, colour research, colour design and art direction at AkzoNobel for the past 16 years, is where Dulux colours first begin.

Led by Heleen, the unit continuously monitors social, cultural and design trends as they emerge all over the globe. By connecting these unique insights to everyday life, the team provides informed trend direction.

Heleen adds:

“When you look at how our ColourFutures™ palettes have evolved over the years, you can chart the fluctuations in our consumers’ appetite for different colours and spot connections with what is going on in the wider world. For example, in 2017, when our consumers felt a need for balance and calm, the palette was dominated by cooler shades of blue and grey. While in 2018, there was a great sense of uncertainty that was reflected in a desire for warm, comforting colours that provided our consumers with solace and refuge.

“For 2019, Spiced Honey is the stand-out shade that perfectly captures the mood of the moment, developed for our customers’ sense of awakening and new fresh mood.”

BOLD BRIGHTS – A SPACE TO ACT The ‘Act’ palette is playful, with pops of vivid red and green among pale pinks and blues and crisp greys and whites. This space is brought to life with reclaimed, personalised furniture and bold graphic shapes.